Convertible tray/cover

ABSTRACT

A container lid having flaps along its perimeter. The flaps are hingedly attached to the lid and have elastic coupling therebetween. When at least one of the flaps placed in an upward position, the rest of the flaps are urged upward by the elastic coupling, and thus form a bounded tray on top of the container. When at least one flap is placed in a downward position, the elastic coupling urges the rest of the flaps downward, forming a cover with improved sealing for the container.

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0001] This application relates to container covers in general, and moreparticularly to container covers adaptable to form a tray.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The top surface of many container lids, especially when they forma substantially planar surface, often perform a second duty as a tray.For example, the top of a food container is often used as a food tray,to provide a convenient surface to place food items. Similarly, the lidof a container may provide a convenient storage space for any other itemlike toys, tools, and the like.

[0003] Especially in a mobile environment, it is desirable to providesuch a tray with a rail—a raised surface towards the perimeter of theplanar surface. Such a rail prevents objects from rolling, falling, orbeing swept off the surface. The rail may be a raised portion of theplanar surface, a separate piece attached to the surface in the vicinityof the perimeter, an upwardly inclined surface at the edges of the tray,and the like. When a planar surface has such a rail, it becomes a tray.

[0004] At times however, such as for cleaning, storage, or simply whennot needed, it is desirable to remove the rail. Additionally, whenremoved the rail may serve other purposes.

[0005] A container lid, especially a top mounted lid, also benefits froma sealing lip: a downwardly extending surface that generally follows thecontainer wall. Such sealing lips assist in placing the lid on top ofthe container, help the lid stay in place, and provide better sealingaction between the lid and the container walls. In some cases thesealing lip also provides a convenient anchor spot for sealing devicessuch as hook and loop fasteners, snaps, buttons, clips and the like. Inother cases the lip fits tightly over the container walls to providingclosing and/or sealing action. A container lid having a sealing lip willbe referred to herein as a cover. In the context of this application theterm sealing relates to preventing movement of the lid and/or toassisting the prevention of spilling objects from the container, and/orgenerally to provide better positioning of the lid on the container.

SUMMARY

[0006] It is an object of the invention is to provide a container lidthat easily converts between a tray and a cover. Preferably, thisconversion only requires a single simple action by the user.

[0007] It is therefore an aspect of the present invention to provide acontainer lid convertible to a tray or a cover, comprising a pluralityof flaps hingedly coupled to the container lid. The flaps may bepositioned in at least a downwardly extending and an upwardly extendingposition. An elastic coupling couples between a first and an adjacentflap. The elastic coupling is adapted to urge the adjacent flap to anupward position if the first flap is hinged into an upward position, andconversely to urge the adjacent flap to a downward position if saidfirst flap is hinged into a downward position. Preferably, the lid issubstantially completely surrounded by the flaps when the flaps are inthe upward position, and each of the flaps is elastically coupled to anadjacent flap.

[0008] More preferably, when the flaps are in said downward position,the elastic coupling causes the flaps to exert pressure against at leastone wall of a container. In the preferred embodiment, the flaps are madeof resiliently elastic material.

[0009] In the most preferred embodiment the flaps are hingedly coupledto the lid by a sufficiently thin material between the flaps and thelid, to allow rotation of the flaps about the lid edge.

[0010] In the preferred embodiment the elastic coupling comprises anelastic band anchored to each of two adjacent flaps. More preferably, aloop shaped elastic band is twisted to form two crossing segmentsbetween two adjacent flaps.

[0011] In the most preferable embodiment, the lid comprises at least onechamber, and each of said flaps comprise at least one chamber.Stiffeners are at least partially disposed within the chambers.

[0012] In another aspect of the present invention there is disclosed amethod of converting a container lid into a tray, the method comprisingthe steps of urging a first flap, hingedly coupled to the lid, into anupward position via an elastic coupling, and having the first flapimpart a force unto an adjacent flap, urging the adjacent flap in turninto an upward position as well.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013]FIG. 1 depicts a container lid with flaps in the downwardposition, thus forming a cover.

[0014]FIG. 2 depicts a container lid with flaps in the upward position,thus forming a tray.

[0015]FIGS. 3a, 3 b, and 3 c depict example embodiments of elasticcoupling between flaps.

[0016]FIGS. 4a and 4 b depicts operation of the invention on polygonshaving more than four sides.

[0017]FIGS. 5 and 6 depict a flattened shape of the preferredembodiments of the invention.

[0018]FIG. 7 depicts a container using the lid in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] In its preferred embodiment the invention comprises flapshingedly attached to the periphery of container lid. The flaps arecoupled to each other by an elastic coupling, and are constructed tomove at least between an upward position and a downward position.

[0020]FIG. 1 depicts a container lid 10 with downwardly directed flaps20 and 25. In this position, the flap becomes a sealing lip and thecontainer lid becomes a cover. The flaps may extend around the perimeterof the lid, or around a portion thereof. For simplicity, only two flapsare shown in this figure. Optionally, the elastic coupling causes theflaps to exert pressure against the container walls, to improvecontainer sealing.

[0021] Attention is now directed to the elastic bands 30 and 35 coupledto the flaps 20 and 25. In order to ease the forming of the tray, a flap20 is elastically coupled to at least one adjacent flap 25. Thus, whenat least one element is hingedly raised, it urges the adjacent flapupward. Therefore, if all flaps are elastically coupled to each other,each rail element urges the hinged flap adjacent thereto to an upwardposition, and the adjacent flap in turn urges the next flap up and soforth. Therefore, the complete container lid becomes bounded by flaps byhingedly operating only one flap. Similarly, by hingedly lowering anupwardly extending flap, the rest of the flaps will be urged to adownwardly extending position, by having adjacent flaps urge otheradjacent flaps downwardly, due to the elastic link couplingtherebetween. FIG. 2 shows such a container lid where all flaps havebeen moved to the upward position and now, together with the containerlid, form a tray. Clearly, this action acts similarly to urge all flapsdown when one flap is lowered to form a cover.

[0022] Those skilled in the art will understand that while FIG. 2 showsa tray encircled on each side, partial encirclement is carried out bylimiting the number of flaps connected with an elastic coupling.

[0023] In the preferred embodiment, the flaps are made of resilientlyelastic material and are hinged to the container lid. More preferably,the lid and the flaps are made of plastic material and the flaps arehingedly coupled by having the same material but with sufficientlysmaller thickness between the flaps and the lid, to allow rotation ofthe flaps about the lid edge. Most preferably, the lid and the flaps aremade of a plastic enclosure having sealed chambers formed therein.Stiffening inserts are inserted within the chambers. The chambers definethe lid and the flaps, and the boundary between the chambers form hingestherebetween. Thus in the flattened position, the lid 50, 60 forms apolygon, a circle, or a combination of the two as seen in FIGS. 5 and 6.The flaps 55, 65 extend outwardly therefrom. Individual flaps areseparated from each other by a cutout 58, 68. It will be noted that manydifferent polygonal shapes, or a combination of polygons and arcs, maysimilarly be used. The flap material itself may be elastic, partiallyelastic, rigid or a combination. This may be achieved by both theselection of flap material or the stiffener material. The flaps may alsohave a different elasticity level such as a rigid flap close to thehinge, and elastic farther away from the hinge.

[0024] Preferably, the elastic nature of the coupling between flaps isselected so that the flaps exert pressure against the container wallwhen in the downward position. Such pressure assists in keeping the lidon the container and improves the sealing action of the lips provided bythe downward positioned flaps.

[0025] One skilled in the art will also observe that many ways are knownto provide an elastic coupling between the flaps. FIGS. 3a, 3 b, and 3 cshow examples of such coupling. In FIG. 3a, at least one elastic band isanchored to anchor points adjacent to the flap edges. Experience showedthat better results are achieved if a pair of intersecting bands isused. In the preferred embodiment, an elastic band forming a loop isused, by twisting the loop to form the intersecting sections as shown,and anchoring the loop to each of two adjacent flap. FIG. 3b provides asecond method of providing an elastic coupling between the two adjacentflaps, by attaching an elastic ribbon therebetween. FIG. 3c depicts theflaps being formed from one continuous elastic material. In such casethe corner between the flaps forms the elastic coupling and ispreferably constructed so the material's elasticity varies to be moreelastic further away from the lid surface.

[0026] Partial encirclement provides for yet another preferredembodiment, where one edge of the container lid is hingedly coupled tothe container. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the container lid maybe raised and lowered while connected to the container. If the containeris located near a vertical surface, for example the back of a chair, thechair back performs the function of preventing items on the tray fromfalling out, while the arrangement provides the hinged coverfunctionality.

[0027] This invention is particularly useful in any accessory that isused inside a vehicle (car, boat, plane), where motion may lead items toroll off the edges of an otherwise flat or level surface. As seen inFIG. 7, The container 70 is attached to, or is rested on a seat 73,preferably so that the seat back 78 supports it, and optionally performsthe role of one of the flaps. The flaps extend to enclose the open sidesof the lid to form a tray, or, in the downward position, form a coverfor the container.

[0028] It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to whathas been described hereinabove merely by way of example. While therehave been described what are at present considered to be the preferredembodiments of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled inthe art that various other embodiments, changes, and modifications maybe made therein without departing from the spirit or scope of thisinvention and that it is, therefore, aimed to cover all such changes andmodifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention,for which letters patent is applied.

What is claimed is:
 1. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover,comprising: a plurality of flaps hingedly coupled to said lid andadapted to be positioned in at least a downwardly extending and anupwardly extending position; an elastic coupling coupled between a firstand an adjacent of said flaps; wherein said elastic coupling beingadapted to urge said adjacent flap to an upward position if said firstflap is hinged into an upward position, and to urge said adjacent flapto a downward position if said first flap is hinged into a downwardposition.
 2. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimedin claim 1, wherein said lid is substantially completely surrounded bysaid flaps when the flaps are in said upwards position, and wherein eachof said flaps is elastically coupled to an adjacent flap.
 3. A containerlid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein oneside of said lid is hingedly coupled to the container.
 4. A containerlid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein whensaid flaps are in said downward position, the elastic coupling causesthe flaps to exert pressure against at least one wall of a container. 5.A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1,wherein at least one of said flaps is made of resiliently elasticmaterial.
 6. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimedin claim 1, wherein said lid and the flaps are made of plastic materialand the flaps are hingedly coupled to said lid by a sufficiently thinmaterial between the flaps and the lid, to allow rotation of the flapsabout the lid edge.
 7. A container lid convertible to a tray or a coveras claimed in claim 1, wherein said elastic coupling comprises anelastic band anchored to each of two adjacent flaps.
 8. A container lidconvertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidelastic coupling comprises a loop formed elastic band, said loop formedelastic band being twisted to form two crossing segments between twoadjacent flaps.
 9. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said elastic coupling comprises an elasticribbon positioned between two adjacent flaps, and anchored thereto. 10.A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1,wherein said elastic coupling comprises elastic material that forms anintegral portion of at least two adjacent flaps.
 11. A container lidconvertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidflaps are resiliently elastic.
 12. A container lid convertible to a trayor a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said flaps are rigid.
 13. Acontainer lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1,wherein said lid comprises at least one chamber, and each of said flapscomprise at least one chamber, and further comprising stiffeners atleast partially disposed within said chambers.
 14. A container lidconvertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lidis coupled hingedly to a container along one of the lid edges.
 15. Acontainer lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1,wherein said lid is substantially circular in shape.
 16. A container lidconvertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lidis substantially polygonal in shape.
 17. A container lid convertible toa tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said pluralityof flaps is elastically coupled to any adjacent flap.
 18. A containerlid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein whenin the upward position, said flaps completely encircle said lid.
 19. Amethod of converting a container lid into a tray, the method comprisingthe steps of: p1 urging a first flap, hingedly coupled to said lid, intoan upward position; via an elastic coupling, having said first flapimpart a force unto an adjacent flap, urging said adjacent flap into anupward position, to form a tray.
 20. A method of converting a containerlid into a container cover, the method comprising the steps of: urging afirst flap, hingedly coupled to said lid, into a downward position; viaan elastic coupling, having said first flap impart a force unto anadjacent flap, urging said adjacent flap into a downward position, saidflaps forming a cover for said container.